Voting – Are you Apathetic or an Activist?

While the official Writ has yet to be dropped, day by day it seems the likelihood of a spring Federal Election is almost certain.  For those living in Ontario, Saskatchewan and likely British Columbia, a Provincial election will also take place this year as well.

With that in mind I pose the question to parents everywhere as to whether they plan to take an activist or an apathetic viewpoint regarding the elections?  I specifically ask this because I’m curious to know if part of your decision takes into account the fact that we will be providing examples for our children to learn from and follow later in life, or is your decision based more on a personal perspective only.

At the Federal level we are likely about to experience the 5^th election since 2000 and while it’s more than usual it’s also completely consistent with the fact that we’ve been governed by minority parliaments since 2004.  When you combine those numbers with provincial elections every 4 or 5 years and municipal elections every 3 or 4 years, depending on where you live it’s easy to see how voter fatigue can set in.  It also becomes easy to see how cynical and generally tuned out the electorate can be, especially when it seems that politicians and political parties are always in campaign mode.

The process can be tiresome and to many of us, it’s just easier to tune out than to tune in.  However, despite its seemingly endless cycle what’s taking place is also a fundamental tenant of our democratic system and participation is something that responsible citizens should be considered mandatory.  Furthermore, for anyone who is a parent I think it is also very important to participate and to take an interest in our government and political systems because we need to set positive examples for our children.

While our kids may be exposed to an endless supply of information and influence, the fact remains that as parents we set the strongest and most visible example.  If we as adults mock the political system and spew apathetic venom around saying things like everyone is a crook and voting is pointless, it’s not hard to imagine that our kids will take on the same viewpoint as they grow into adults.  Any political candidate or activist will tell you that it’s pretty hard to engage our youth about politics and quite often this disconnect has at least something to do with the prevailing attitudes at home.

While I’m not going to get all melodramatic here and talk about how our freedoms were fought for and earned, the point is still valid that what we have here in Canada is a system that is envied by billions around the world.  All we are asked to do is to take some time to make an informed decision and with each election, give up perhaps 15 minutes of your time to spend 5 seconds putting a simple X on a piece of paper.

Sure our lives are busy and we could be selfish about our precious time.  We can always make an excuse about why we don’t follow politics or don’t take the time to vote, but I find this has more to do with subjective than legitimate reasons.  If you don’t understand the political process there are plenty of ways to learn.  Others may disagree but I stand firm in my belief that exercising our democratic rights is a privilege that should not be taken for granted.  Canada has taken a voluntary approach to our democracy and our participation rate has been plummeting for decades.  Australia was having the same problem until they began instituting fines for anyone who does not vote unless they have a valid excuse.

I believe that as parents we have an obligation to teach our children to respect the democracy we have and to become participants in the process when they are legally able to do so.  It may not be the most enjoyable thing to do, but to my mind its certainly one of the most important.

My call to action for all parents is to take ownership of the democratic process and to shed the cynicism that has become so pervasive over time. By doing so we will set positive examples for our children and hopefully silence the loudest and most negative voices who really only win when apathy reigns supreme over activism.

Let’s end the apathy and start giving a damn once again!